A Charming Ghost (Magical Cures Mystery Series) Read online

  “You dare ask such a question?” Madame Torres turned her head. Her red turban pinned tightly to her head. Her red flaming hair poked out from underneath.

  “I was going to say how fabulous you looked for your age,” I teased.

  “What on earth is on your head?” Madame Torres questioned, her voice snarled.

  “You don’t like it?” I asked her and smiled when a photo of me in a red Santa hat floated in her glittery globe. She glared. “Merry Christmas!” I chirped in an annoying happy voice just to aggravate her even more.

  “But seriously, can you give me a little festive music while I get the decorations up?” I was ready to get into the festive mood, even if I had to make myself forget the little brass bell charm.

  “If I must.” She disappeared from the globe and replaced herself with a light blue background and lightly falling snow. She looked like a snow globe. “But don’t think I’m happy about it. I hate the cold and I hate the mortal holidays. So. . .um. . .friendly,” she groaned before she played “White Christmas”.

  I opened another box and took out the pre-lit tree, standing it on its built-in base. The branches folded open and out. It was lunchtime and The Gathering Grove and Wicked Good both had lines out the door from the tourists. It was a perfect time to get the tree up in the display window and work a little magic.

  The bell above the door dinged, letting me know someone had come in. I crawled out from under the tree where I was separating the last of the branches to find Oscar standing in the doorway with a cup of coffee.

  “My hero.” I blinked rapidly and clapped my hands together.

  “You are adorable in that hat. You did always love Christmas when we were little kids.” Oscar’s smile grew as his hand extended toward me to hand me the coffee cup. “I figured you were getting tired and could use a pick-me-up. You tossed and turned all night.”

  “I did?” I asked and gave him a kiss.

  “You don’t remember?” He looked at me curiously, which I might have thought was odd, but his devilishly handsome looks in his sheriff’s uniform outweighed any thoughts I might have had about anything.

  “No.” I shook my head and took a sip of the coffee. “Mmmm.” The extra jolt of pumpkin spice calmed my soul. “Perfect choice.”

  “I’m a little concerned about why you were so restless.” He wasn’t about to let it die and I wasn’t about to tell him about the sudden chill I had had in bed. It would only upset him and he’d stick close by my side.

  Not that I didn’t love him right by my side, but I had things to do, like get the window display up and people to see, like Patience Karima.

  “I’m fine,” my voice rose an octave. “See,” I pointed over to Madame Torres, “I even have festive music playing.” I ran my hand down my jeans, feeling the charm I had completely forgotten about in my pocket.

  “What?” Oscar’s eyes narrowed.

  “What? What?” I asked, placing both hands on the sides of the cup and turned to look at my tree.

  “You looked funny.” He took a step closer.

  “I do have a Santa hat on.” I teased.

  “Seriously.” Oscar wasn’t buying my hat excuse. He was always good at reading me and my expressions no matter how much I tried to conceal them. “You have never had a good poker face and if something is going on in that cute little head of yours, I need to know.”

  I put my finger up to his lips to stop him.

  “I’ve got to get this window display finished and since everyone seems to be having lunch, it’s perfect timing.” I put the cup down on the table where the apple cider cauldron was located and picked up some garland out of another box so I could hang it around the window.

  “Yeah, okay.” Oscar wasn’t buying it, but if I could get him out of the shop, I’d get down to Bella’s Baubles to get this little matter of the bell charm addressed and find out what exactly it meant on my way to see Patience.

  I looked out the window when I heard a car pull up across the street. It was Faith pulling up the cupcake car in front of Wicked Good. If she came over here to work, Oscar would really be asking all sorts of questions.

  “Maybe we should go ahead and take our honeymoon.” Oscar grinned from ear-to-ear. His devilishly handsome good looks made my heart pound and toes curl. His blue eyes popped against his olive complexion and his black hair had just enough gel in it to muss up the longer length on top and to slick the close-cropped sides.

  “Honeymoon,” I whispered, wondering just when we were going to get time away from the hustle and bustle of our duties in Whispering Falls. “You have that meeting. We have the bazaar. You know you can’t take off in Locust Grove with the all the extra work they have for you there.”

  During the holidays, normal towns like Locust Grove always saw a rise in crime. They had put Oscar on the schedule more than usual to help patrol the shopping centers. Not like Whispering Falls. If someone tried to take something from any of our shops, our intuition would go off like the siren on top of the Two Sisters and a Funeral’s ambulance.

  “I guess you are right.” He reached out and pulled me close to him. His chin rested perfectly on top of my head. He whispered, “But you promise me that we will get away after all this stuff dies down.”

  “Promise.” I curled up on my toes and granted him a slow and thoughtful kiss. Something that would hold him over until we got home tonight.

  “Then I better get going to the emergency village council meeting.” His eyes didn’t leave my face. “Are you sure you are okay?” I really tried not to smile or even give a hint that I was a tad bit worried or that something was not right. Satisfied, he said, “I’ll see you at home tonight?”

  “Right after my hair cut.” I reminded him of my appointment after all the shops were closed and Chandra could fit me in.

  “Keep the hat on.” He winked and pulled me close. He wrapped me in his arms and gave me a kiss before he left. The cold air pushed in when he shut the door behind him.

  I jerked the hat off my head and tossed it aside.

  I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out the charm, placing it in my palm. I rubbed it with my finger and watched Oscar run across the street to the police station.

  Mewl, mewl. Mr. Prince Charming stared at me. He sat next to the Christmas tree.

  “So.” I shrugged and put the charm back in my pocket.

  The tree was one of those pre-lit, easy-peasy kinds. I plugged in the lights and was happy to see they all appeared to work. The memory of how I’d slip out the door and meet Oscar under his big oak tree to share a Ding Dong while Darla was fussing each year with the big ball of knotted lights brought a smile to my face.

  Meow, Mr. Prince Charming swept his tail back and forth dragging the floor.

  I stepped back to get a good look at the whole tree. Looking up, I noticed the branches were flattened and stuck together so I lifted up on my tippy toes and spread a couple of the tree branches near the top. “I didn’t have to tell him anything yet.”

  Rowl! Mr. Prince Charming stood up on his hind legs and batted at the dangling charm bracelet from my wrist. He and Oscar might have a love-hate relationship and might not get along all the time, but Mr. Prince Charming knew Oscar would keep me safe.

  “I’ll tell him after I go see Bella,” I said. She was the one who helped me understand what each charm meant.

  Bella Van Lou owned Bella’s Baubles, the only jewelry store in Whispering Falls. No doubt Mr. Prince Charming had gotten the charm from her. Every charm he’d ever given me had come from her.

  The bell above the door dinged. Mr. Prince Charming ran over and rubbed up against Faith Mortimer’s leg.

  “My goodness! It’s getting cold out there.” Faith rushed in, frigid air chased in behind her. She slammed the door. “And the wind isn’t talking to me.”

  She bent down and picked up my furry cat. His purr grew louder with each swipe of her hand down his back.

  I gnawed on the corner of my lip, my eyes lowered an
d I rubbed my hand down the front pocket of my jeans. I looked out the window and over the shops. The afternoon sky looked grey. Dark clouds formed over the tips of the mountainous background. A nervous feeling curled inside my stomach. My intuition told me something was brewing. Something that was not welcome in Whispering Falls.

  The cackle of customers and happy faces skewed my view as they walked by on the sidewalk in front of the shop.

  “Looks like we are going to have some customers.” Faith interrupted my thoughts and set Mr. Prince Charming back on the ground. “You can run on and do your errands.” Faith was more than capable of holding down the fort while I hurried down to see Bella and make good on my promise to see Patience. “I’m ready to take over.”

  “I won’t be long.” I assured her and headed back to the coat tree to grab my cloak. I grabbed the edges and snapped it out in front of me before I wrapped it around me and tied the straps around my neck. I grabbed Madame Torres and my bag, stowing her deep at the bottom.

  “Can I drop the holiday cheer?” I heard Madame Torres snap from the bottom of the bag.

  Without looking in my bag, I gave the ball a quick smack with the pads of two fingers, shutting her up. The music turned off.

  “If you need something, just holler. I’ll be in the village.” I didn’t exactly want to tell her what I was up to. Faith might accidentally let it slip if I did tell her I had a new protection charm. It was a risk I didn’t want to take. Oscar had enough on his plate and I was sure I could figure this out on my own.

  I put the strap of my bag across my body while making my way through the customers looking at all the homeopathic bottles.

  I opened the door and stepped out, grabbing the edges of the cloak and wrapping it tighter around me to ward off the nippy, chilling air. Only I realized the chill was still from deep within my soul.

  Chapter Five

  “Hmmm.” Bella Van Lou was hunched over the glass counter at Bella’s Baubles looking at the brass bell charm through the loupe. “He definitely picked a different charm this time.”

  Bella shivered from her toes to her hair follicles. So much so the bracelets around her wrists jingled.

  “What was that?” I eyed her suspiciously.

  “What?” She flipped her head to the side, letting her long blond hair fling over her shoulder.

  “That shiver.” I pointed my finger at her, outlining her body.

  “Chilly.” She crossed her arms, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. She gave a slight smile that didn’t show the gap between her teeth nor was the smile the kind that balled her cheeks. This kind of smile I didn’t need my intuition to tell me that she was hiding something.

  “Chilly? Really?” I leaned forward and planted my hands on the glass counter and bent down a bit since Bella was five-foot-two, bringing myself nose-to-nose with my friend. “After all we have been through, you are going to tell me you are chilly?”

  Bella took a step back. Her smoky eyes showed a slight, watchful hesitation. Her throat moved up and down. Her mouth parted, she put her tongue between the gap in her two front teeth like she did when she was nervous.

  “You are doing that thing with your tongue.” I pointed to her mouth.

  “What thing?” She pinched her lips together.

  “That tongue thing. Between your teeth.” I twirled my finger in front of her mouth. “That thing you do when you’re nervous.” I planted my hands on my hips. “If you know something, just tell me.”

  “Ahem,” she cleared her throat. “This is one charm I wish he hadn’t picked out.” She sniffed through her nose.

  A creepy uneasiness found its way in the bottom of my heart. I sucked in a deep breath. I had to face it. I was a witch. How bad could it be?

  “I’m ready.” I straightened back up and pulled my shoulders back. My cloak fell behind my shoulders and hung on my back. The tie made me feel like I was choking but I wasn’t about to adjust it. I needed to be strong.

  “The bell is a symbol for letting you know something is coming or has come, like the bell over doors. It lets you know someone is there. But the brass is another story.” She used her finger to push the small brass bell charm on the glass counter toward me. “Brass helps protect from falling for the evil eye, from evil spirits and any sort of spell cast against you.”

  “Spell cast against me?” I giggled at the thought, knowing that was virtually impossible since casting spells was against the by-laws.

  “Have you made anyone mad lately?” Bella asked as if she were giving me a hazy warning. The look on her face told me she wasn’t kidding.

  “Mad?” My head jerked side-to-side. “Who on earth could be mad at me?”

  “Well, your wedding was less than what was promised.” She shrugged.

  “My wedding?” I drew my hand up to my chest. “It was amazing.”

  Okay, maybe it wasn’t what Oscar and I had planned. The town was crazy excited about the union between Oscar and I. It was a match the spiritual gods had to create since Oscar was a Dark-Sider Spiritualist and I was a Good-Sider Spiritualist. Dark-Siders were known to have a bit of an evil side, but there were good ones like Oscar and Eloise Sandlewood. Even Faith’s sister was a Dark-Sider, long story short…her parents had a multi-spiritualist union like Oscar and me. And if Oscar and I had children, one of them could. . .

  “Oh my God!” I gasped. “What if it’s Aunt Helena?”

  “Your own aunt would put a spell on you?” Bella asked in a really, no way, what are you talking about, are you crazy tone.

  “It might seemed far-fetched, but look at what happened when I met Raven and Faith when I was a student at Hidden Halls, A Spiritualist University.” My brows rose. “They come from a multi-spiritualist family and Aunt Helena had a problem with it.”

  “They were causing havoc at the university.” Bella didn’t see what I was saying. “Even though they were each trying to keep the other safe.”

  It was true. It had been set up to look like Raven had almost killed Faith when Faith was poisoned, but really it was a different evil force.

  “Helena didn’t do it.” Bella reminded me how my own aunt wasn’t a killer.

  “I’m not saying she’s a killer, maybe she put a little hex on me not to get pregnant.” A deep sigh escaped me, lifting my shoulders up and then down.

  “Pregnant?” Bella looked a little frazzled. “How did we go from multi-spiritualist relationships to pregnancy?”

  “Think about it.” I knew it was off, maybe way off. “Aunt Helena was so mad about me not having the ancestral dance performed at midnight and because Oscar isn’t a Good-Sider, I wasn’t about to do it.” I ran my hands through my hair. “And we all know how the wedding plans had changed.”

  Even though Aunt Helena didn’t say it or act like it, I could tell she wasn’t happy when I went to my bridal shower, the night before the wedding, and through a strange turn of events Oscar and I got married that night at an impromptu ceremony. It ended up being perfect for us, but not the wedding my only living relative wanted me to have.

  “You’ve got to be kidding?” Bella reached across the counter, grabbed my wrist and clipped my charm bracelet off of me. “There is no way.”

  “I’m just saying she doesn’t want me to have children yet. Especially one that could be part Dark-Sider. Or full.” The thought of Aunt Helena possibly doing something like this was ridiculous.

  She would never put a spell or hex on me. But who would?

  “You’re right. She does love Oscar, just not his heritage and she did look like she was having a good time after we tied the knot.” The fond memories of my wedding night still didn’t override the feeling that something was not right. “But what about that?”

  I gestured to the charm she was putting on my ever-growing protection bracelet.

  “I don’t know. But I do know that he,” I followed Bella’s finger past my shoulder and out her front window where Mr. Prince Charming was sitting on the outside windowsill. “He
knows what is best and this.” She dangled the bracelet in the air. “This is obviously what you need to keep you safe at this moment.”

  Chapter Six

  “Well, well.” I looked at Mr. Prince Charming who was patiently waiting for me on the steps outside of Bella’s Baubles. I shook my wrist back and forth letting the charms jingle against each other. “Happy?” Sarcasm dripped out of my mouth.

  I’d have been much happier if he hadn’t dropped the charm by my foot.

  “I told you it’s a bad idea,” Gerald Regiula’s voice echoed across the street from the front of The Gathering Grove Tea Shoppe. His back was to me, but Petunia Shrubwood faced him. “This is not our holiday.”

  “But I think it will be good for the tourists who do come for the bazaar,” Petunia insisted in a loud voice.

  Gerald shook his head and turned his body toward the street. Baby Orin was strapped to him in one of those front backpack looking things new moms use to keep their baby snugged tight to them.

  “They come to the bazaar for our shops. To help our economy. Not some. . .” Gerald threw his arms in the air, “some carnival rides in the cold!” His lips flapped together in a fluster.

  “It’s just another added bonus for them to stay in town.” Petunia stomped her foot. Her usually messy brown hair was much messier today. A few holly berries dropped out of her hair. A couple of birds came out of nowhere, swooping down and plucked them in their mouths.

  I tried to hear more of their conversation, but I couldn’t make it all out. All I knew was that Petunia wanted to bring a carnival to the bazaar and Gerald didn’t. They were definitely arguing.

  “Keep your voice down,” Petunia whispered, her eyes gazed toward me and then she leaned into Gerald. “June is right there.”

  Gerald glanced across the street. My hand shot up in the air. There was no way I could ignore them. It was a small village and if I ignored them, they’d know I heard them.